Unit questions: How do social, political, and economic conditions lead to extreme beliefs? How do these beliefs lead to conflict?
It was the bloodiest, deadliest war the world had ever seen. More than 38 million people died, many of them innocent civilians. It also was the most destructive war in history. Fighting raged in many parts of the world. More than 50 nations took part in the war, which changed the world forever. For Americans, World War II had a clear-cut purpose. People knew why they were fighting: to defeat tyranny. Most of Europe had been conquered by Nazi Germany, which was under the iron grip of dictator Adolf Hitler. The war in Europe began with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. Wherever the Nazis went, they waged a campaign of terror, mainly against Jews, but also against other minorities. In Asia and the Pacific, Japanese armies invaded country after country, island after island. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, the U.S. Congress declared war, taking the U.S. into World War II.
Calling this conflict World War II is not an overstatement. This was not just a European war though to a great extent, Europe does lie at the heart of this conflict. World War II begs the question of who was involved.
Countries involved in World War Two
Dark Green: Allies before the attack on Pearl HarbourLight Green: Allied countries that entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.Orange: Axis Powers
It was the bloodiest, deadliest war the world had ever seen. More than 38 million people died, many of them innocent civilians. It also was the most destructive war in history. Fighting raged in many parts of the world. More than 50 nations took part in the war, which changed the world forever.
For Americans, World War II had a clear-cut purpose. People knew why they were fighting: to defeat tyranny. Most of Europe had been conquered by Nazi Germany, which was under the iron grip of dictator Adolf Hitler. The war in Europe began with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. Wherever the Nazis went, they waged a campaign of terror, mainly against Jews, but also against other minorities.
In Asia and the Pacific, Japanese armies invaded country after country, island after island. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, the U.S. Congress declared war, taking the U.S. into World War II.
Source: World War II: An Overview
Calling this conflict World War II is not an overstatement. This was not just a European war though to a great extent, Europe does lie at the heart of this conflict. World War II begs the question of who was involved.
Lesson 1: Examine the Aftermath of World War I
Lesson 2: Origins of WW II-The Treaty of Versailles
Lesson 3: Origins of WW II-The Great Depression
Lesson 4: Origins of WW II-The Russian Revolution
Lesson 5: Origins of WW II-The Failure of the League of Nations
Lesson 6: Origins of WW II-The Appeasement of Nazi Aggression
Lesson 7: Origins of WW II-The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939Assessment: Time Exam on the Origins of WW II
Lesson 8: Examine the Rise of Nationalism before and during WWII
Lesson 9: Meet the Dictators
Lesson 10: Examining Historiography
Lesson 11:The War in Europe-Create a Timeline
Lesson 12:Defining the Holocaust
Lesson 13: Examining Nazi Propaganda
Lesson 14: The War in the Pacific-Annotate your timeline
Lesson 15: The Atomic Bomb Seminar.The Second World War – Final Assessment
Key Terms:
(Also includes Terminology from all units covered),The Treaty of Versailles, War Guilt Clause, armistice, Woodrow Wilson, 14 points, The Big Three, demilitarize, disarmament, self-determination, democracy, Diktat, occupy/occupation, reparations, republic, Weimar, open diplomacy, navigation, free trade, disarmament, colonies, self-determination, League of Nations, David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, The November Criminals, denotation, connotation, The Great Depression, 1929 Stock Market Crash, bread lines, soup kitchen, hyperinflation, isolationism, totalitarian, Czar, Nicholas II, Russian, Lenin, Revolution, Bolsheviks, Communist Party, Marxist Revolution, October 1917, Manchurian crisis, Abyssinian crisis, verbal/economic/physical sanctions, puppet government, fascism, Nazism (National Socialism), appeasement, aggression, the Rhineland, Axis Powers, Anschluss, Sudetenland, Mein Kampf, Lebensraum, rearmament, the Saar, Mussolini, USSR, Nazi Soviet Non Aggression Pact, Stalin, Czechoslovakia, Nationalism, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Imperialism, Militarism, Genocide, Kristallnacht, classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, ethnicity, race, common identities, propaganda, hate speech, hate propaganda, euphemisms, prosecute, tolerance, massacre, “final solution”, embargo, extremist, intermarriage, moderates, segregation, concentration camp, forced resettlement, Ghettos, extermination, blockade, mandate, logistics, denial tactics, Holocaust, Joseph Stalin, historiography, war crime, individualism, Harry Truman, Potsdam Conference, Yalta Conference, Atomic Diplomacy, Winston Churchill, Uranium, Nuclear test, Potsdam Declaration, Uranium Bomb, Hiroshima, Plutonium Bomb, Nagasaki, Fat Man, Little Boy, Eisenhower